What: Orgasmic Meditation TurnON event, a PG-13 evening of playful conversation around topics "that we mostly only consider having in our head." The event is designed as an icebreaker before the OM Basics training course.

Who: Singles and couples over 21. Event is organized by TurnON Colorado.

She lives in a large home of about a dozen roommates. She likens it to a co-op. Except in this co-op, everyone stops everything multiple times a day to focus exclusively on the clitoris.

It's known as the OM House, for the practice they all share: Orgasmic Meditation.

An estimated 400 Coloradans are trained in Orgasmic Meditation, and Boulder is one of the world's most thriving hot spots.

Thousands of people do this worldwide.

You can find OM circles every morning in Boulder. At 7:30 a.m. at a private office space in Boulder, Gibbert joins as many as 20 people, who set up pillows and blankets in a circle and go through two rounds of vagina-stroking, sometimes with a complete stranger.

OM, as it's called for short, is deliberate and structured, and many participants consider it more a form of meditation than a sexual act — at least in the traditional definition that's prevalent in modern America.

In an OM circle, the women drop their pants and another person — trained, and wearing a latex glove with lube — strokes each woman's clitoris in a very specific way for 15 minutes. When the timer goes off, both parties share a quick highlight of the experience and go on their way. No intercourse. No dinner and drinks. No story. No romance. No relationship. No obligations whatsoever, not even to be friends. Just sensation.

"It breaks some taboos. It breaks the rules," Gibbert says. "I'm not supposed to drop my pants and let somebody stroke my (vagina) that I just met. That's breaking a social norm. And there's an edginess and freedom to that, and that's where the turn-on happens. The rule-breaking."

As she sees it, OM removes the "commerce" from sex and sexuality; the expectation that if "I do this, you'll do something for me later." There's no "giver" and "receiver." Just two consenting adults stroking and being stroked for their own mutual pleasure, and in that, connecting in a new way.

"It's what I've always been hungry for," Gibbert says. "A deeper connection for what my desire is, and also from that being able to connect on a deeper level to people," but without society's labels that define relationships, she says.

Costen Aytes and Erica Gibbert, of Boulder, set up "The Nest" for a session of Orgasmic Meditation at their home in Boulder, a co-op-like living arrangement focused on the practice. (JEREMY PAPASSO / DAILY CAMERA)

A company named OneTaste came up with OM about a decade ago, and it's now growing with such speed that the former director of OneTaste Colorado, Lianna Lifson, recently relocated from Boulder to New York to focus on expansion plans.

The local events are now organized by a group called TurnON Colorado.

Lifson was a 23-year-old high school teacher with a master's degree and a long list of bad dates when her roommate invited her to a TurnON event, the icebreaker for people interested in OM. She says they played communication games that cultivated tension, which she enjoyed.

"But I thought the whole stroking thing was far out there and weird," she says.

She went on a couple more bad dates. She couldn't stop wondering about OM. So she decided to take the training.

"And the whole quality of my life started going up," Lifson says. "It was like this moment where this man didn't want anything from me, he was just stroking (me) for his own pleasure, and I could feel something small but distinct in my body open. And I remember being like, 'Oh, that's it. That's the thing that's been closed.' I don't want that thing to close again."

She's been OMing for five years now, teaching for three. Now it's her life's mission to share it with as many people as possible.

No strings attached

Gibbert practices OM four times a day with various partners; she's never had a relationship with any of them, but she says she considers them all friends. You can meet partners at social gatherings, trainings or post partner requests on a private Facebook page. Nearly 500 people are a member of the TurnON Colorado MeetUp group.

Gibbert is not currently in a serious relationship, but she was dating someone exclusively when she first started OMing. At first, she says she was terrified to tell him about it, for fear of rejection and judgment, but when she finally did, he was on board to learn and explore. They trained together on Skype with a certified trainer in Las Vegas and eventually became open to practicing with other people too.

"Yes, it was a sexuality practice, and he saw it distinct from sex," Gibbert says. "He trusted that just like he was OMing with me to feel the sensation in his body without expectations or obligations of anything else, that the other people I was OMing with were approaching it with a similar appreciation. Plus, he noticed how it was shifting things in me."

Some couples OM exclusively together. You can also set up a private training with an OM coach, who can help walk you through questions to help you identify potential partners of your own selection, perhaps even people who are not yet trained.

Every Wednesday night in Boulder and every Tuesday night in Denver, dozens of newbies get together for TurnONs.

Once they're trained, here's how it's supposed to work: One person asks the other if they'd like to OM. Yes? They do, following the prescription, designed to eliminate performance anxiety from either party. No? No explanation needed, and no hard feelings. The end.

"As soon as obligation is part of it, sensation dies," Gibbert says. "So much in my past was all out of obligation, and my body just shuts down there. If I can't say no, my yes means nothing."

Deeper than the physical

Gibbert says she was initially drawn to OM because she had never experienced an orgasm. But this ran much deeper than the physical, she says.

"That's a place I felt like I was broken," she says. "I felt like there was something foundationally wrong with me, and because of that, I didn't connect with other people. I didn't even venture into relationships, because this point is going to come where we have to have sex and I'm not going to be able to perform the way he wants. He won't be fulfilled and I'll feel shameful, so I'll just avoid."

Gibbert says OM has reformatted how she thinks, and redefined what it means to "orgasm." Today, the single moment of climax is less important than experiencing involuntary sensations. Just letting go.

Everything is different now, she says.

"From that perspective, I am orgasmic and I am complete and whole," she says. "So now I can come to the relationship as a whole, complete person, versus trying to avoid or compensate for something."

Other participants echo Gibbert's feelings that OM is a spiritual practice and mindful, much like yoga and meditation. In fact, 60 percent of participants in a OneTaste survey reported that Orgasmic Meditation had "changed their lives." Sixty percent of women said the practice had increased their capacity to feel pleasure.

They also tout the health benefits of orgasms. Studies show that orgasms can reduce the risk of mild depression, the risk of heart disease, boost the immune system and even decrease and manage pain.

Women who have orgasms can increase their pain threshold by more than 108 percent, according to a Huffington Post article, citing the author of the book "The Science of Orgasm."

Lifson thinks everyone should OM. But she understands why many people don't.

She compares it to a yoga class, which research also shows can be mentally and physically beneficial.

"It's uncomfortable. You must leave hangups about your body behind," she says. "You have to get into the yoga clothes. Or with us, you have to take your pants off."

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